Nowadays aircraft passenger cabinets are constructed or are being retrofit with a wide assortment of personal electronic and entertainment options accessible from the passenger seat. Airline designers keep in mind that they want to encourage passengers to remain seated as much as possible during a flight for safety, crew mobility and to enable the most efficient cabin service. To improve cabin service and make the flight more enjoyable, airlines may provide video and audio entertainment, including television, video games, internet access, and other in-flight entertainment (IFE) components. These amenities are especially offered in first and/or business class cabins and permit passengers to work, communicate, or be entertained during the flight without leaving the comfort of their seat.
Passenger IFE systems such as seat mounted flat screen video monitors, and credit card activated cellular telephones are now most often mounted in the seat backs and arm rests of passenger aircraft. Some airlines also distribute personal DVD/CD players with a choice of movies/music. Passengers may even carry their own laptop computers or DVD/CD players and request power outlets. Within the confines of compact passenger seats fitted with conventional food service trays and arm rests, the available space is often inadequate. It has been considered necessary to fit all IFE equipment within the passenger seat itself. Thus, for IFE equipment such as a seat mounted display, the electrical wiring, components, processor unit, etc. is stored within an IFE box. The IFE box is typically mounted on the side of the seat frame leg structure, thus inhibiting leg room, storage space under the passenger seat, and exposing the IFE components to debris and liquids.
Current seat design, specifically the seat pan, prohibits or limits airline technicians' access to the IFE boxes when service is required and the technicians are forced to crawl on the floor of the aircraft (or possibly even remove one or more seats) in order to properly access and service the IFE boxes. This inconvenience greatly increases repair time and reduces accuracy, and often times requires a repair to be performed on an particular IFE box multiple times until the issue is properly resolved.
Additionally, regarding the seat design, a conventional hydrolock which operates on a bell crank is often positioned either on the side of the passenger seat frame or in the center of the seat frame below the seat pan. If mounted on the side the hydrolock may be exposed to debris and liquids, which exposure could shorten its service life. More importantly, the conventional placement of hydrolocks on the seat frame may prohibit (or at least limit) access to the IFE box, by not allowing a technician to access the IFE box from a vertical (upright standing above) position versus crawling underneath the passenger seat.